Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022): the Oscar for best animation and the phrase "animation is cinema"

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) is the stop-motion reinvention of the Carlo Collodi classic that the Mexican director had been developing for more than fifteen years. Co-produced by Netflix Animation, ShadowMachine and The Jim Henson Company, the film takes the fable to interwar Italy under Mussolini's fascism and won the Oscar for best animated film in 2023 — historically, the first victory for a streaming service in that category.

A story that "you think you know, but you don't"

Unlike Disney's Pinocchio, del Toro maintains the darkness of the source material: death, guilt, political manipulation and the question of what it means to be "a good boy." Gregory Mann voices the title character; David Bradley is Geppetto; Ewan McGregor narrates as Talking Grillo. The cast also includes Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Burn Gorman, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

Origin and production

Del Toro announced the project in 2008 with The Jim Henson Company and music by Nick Cave. After years of studio rejections — in 2017 he even canceled it due to lack of financing — Netflix rescued it in 2018. The script was written by del Toro with Patrick McHale; The soundtrack is by Alexandre Desplat, a frequent collaborator of the director. The budget was around 35 million dollars.

The film premiered at the 66th London Film Festival (BFI) on October 15, 2022, had a window in select theaters from November 9, and arrived on Netflix on December 9. Critics highlighted the direction, production design, songs and fidelity to the cruelty of the original story.

The speech at the Oscars

At the 95th Oscar ceremony (March 12, 2023), del Toro took the stage alongside Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley and uttered a phrase that became famous: «Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre («Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre»). He asked to keep animation "in the conversation" and dedicated the award to his wife Kim Morgan and his parents.

With this victory, del Toro became the first person in history to win an Oscar for best film, best direction and best animated film (the first two for The Shape of Water in 2018).

Main prizes

• Oscar 2023: best animated film.
• BAFTA 2023: best animated film.
• Golden Globe 2023: best animated film.
• Critics Choice Awards and PGA Awards: best animation.

Where to see it

Available on Netflix from December 2022, with dubbing and subtitles in Spanish (Latin America and Spain). Official file: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio on Netflix.